Disposal of heterogeneous solid wastes often requires the collection of such waste material at a collection point and then transportation of the waste material to a permanent remote disposal site. Such heterogeneous solid waste includes trash, rubble, and a multitude of different types of material of different size, shape and density. Such waste material from large urban areas is often collected at dump sites from which the waste material is loaded by bulldozers or clam buckets into tractor-trailer type vehicles for hauling to permanent disposal sites located in areas remote from such urban centers.
Prior proposed vehicle bodies for hauling such waste material have included truck bodies capable of being tilted to a sufficient angle so that trash carried thereby will move by gravity off the discharge end of the body. Since such discharge often occurs in non-stable soil areas, the tilting of the loaded truck body with a settling of one side of the vehicle results in overturning of the vehicle before the load is discharged. Thus such types of waste carrying vehicles require pre-conditioning of the soil at the truck dumping area. Another type of prior proposed waste hauling vehicle body has included a movable slat-type endless belt having a top lay above the floor of the vehicle body and upon which the trash is loaded and then moved off the end of the vehicle body by moving the slat-type endless belt. The slat-type endless belt construction required some separation between the slats at the discharge end of the vehicle body and where the slats moved in an arcuate path for return movement to the front of the vehicle body. Separation of the slats at the discharge point permitted trash elements to fall between such slats thereby causing interference with the operation of the slat-type endless belt. Cleaning and maintenance of such a type of vehicle body was time consuming, difficult and resulted in excessive "deadhead" or down time for the vehicle.
In another prior proposed trash hauling vehicle, a vehicle body was provided with a floor over which passed the top lay of an endless belt of continuous material. (U.S. Pat. No. 3,482,717). Such prior proposed endless belt was driven by an end roller at one end of the vehicle body. An improvement of this endless belt arrangement included the provision of a second endless belt beneath the top lay of the first belt to provide sufficient power to move the belt when under load (U.S. Pat. No. 3,593,864).
In another prior proposed construction of such a trash hauling vehicle body, the top lay of an endless belt was supported on a plurality of closely spaced rolls. (U.S. Pat. No. 3,247,983).
Since the waste material loaded and hauled in such vehicle bodies includes a random mixture of many different types of elements and material and since heavy loads in the nature of 40,000 pounds per load are required to make such hauling economically feasible, such prior proposed trash hauling vehicles were not wholly satisfactory. It is desirable that a trash hauling vehicle be capable of being readily loaded, the load should be a maximum load in the order of 40,000 pounds depending upon governmental highway load restrictions, and that such a maximum heay load be capable of discharge from the vehicle body without overturning of the vehicle. It is also desirable that the interior of the vehicle body be capable of being readily cleaned and flushed with fluid under pressure such as water or steam and that the means for moving the trash from the vehicle body be free from entanglement with trash particles which might render the trash moving means inoperative.